Editing Benjamin Robbins Curtis

{{Short description|US Supreme Court justice from 1851 to 1857}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2017}}
{{Redirect|Justice Curtis}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image       = Benjamin Robbins Curtis - photo.png
| office      = [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
| nominator   = [[Millard Fillmore]]
| term_start  = October 10, 1851
| term_end    = September 30, 1857
| predecessor = [[Levi Woodbury]]
| successor   = [[Nathan Clifford]]
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1809|11|4}}
| birth_place = [[Watertown, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|1874|9|15|1809|11|4}}}}
| death_place = [[Newport, Rhode Island]], U.S.
| spouse      = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Eliza Woodward|1833|1844|end=died}}
* {{marriage|Anna Scolley|1846|1860|end=died}}
* {{marriage|Maria Allen|1861}}
}}
| children    = 12
| party       = {{plainlist|
* [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] (before 1854)
* [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] (1854–1862)
* [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] (1863–1874)<ref>[[Jeff Forret|Forret, Jeff]] (2012).  ''Slavery in the United States''. [[Infobase Publishing]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=GZhbAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA369 p. 369]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914151954/https://books.google.com/books?id=GZhbAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA369 |date=September 14, 2021 }}.</ref>
}}
| education   = [[Harvard University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])
}}

'''Benjamin Robbins Curtis''' (November 4, 1809&nbsp;– September 15, 1874) was an American lawyer and judge who served as an [[associate justice of the United States Supreme Court]] from 1851 to 1857. Curtis was the first and only [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] justice of the Supreme Court, and he was the first Supreme Court justice to have a formal [[law degree]]. He is often remembered as one of the two dissenters in the Supreme Court's infamous 1857 decision ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/landmark_dred.html|title=Famous Dissents – Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)|publisher=PBS|access-date=August 20, 2012|archive-date=September 5, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120905181206/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/landmark_dred.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Curtis resigned from the Supreme Court in 1857 to return to private legal practice in [[Boston|Boston, Massachusetts]]. In 1868, Curtis was President [[Andrew Johnson]]'s defense lawyer during [[Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson|Johnson's impeachment trial]].

==Early life and education==
Curtis was born November 4, 1809, in [[Watertown, Massachusetts]], the son of Lois Robbins and Benjamin Curtis, the captain of a [[merchant vessel]]. Young Curtis attended common school in [[Newton, Massachusetts|Newton]] and beginning in 1825 [[Harvard University|Harvard College]], where he won an essay writing contest in his junior year. At Harvard, he became a member of the [[Porcellian Club]]. He graduated in 1829, and was a member of [[Phi Beta Kappa]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbk.org/userfiles/file/Famous%20Members/PBKSupremeCourtJustices.pdf|title=Supreme Court Justices Who Are Phi Beta Kappa Members|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928082723/http://www.pbk.org/userfiles/file/Famous%20Members/PBKSupremeCourtJustices.pdf|archive-date=September 28, 2011|publisher=Phi Beta Kappa|access-date=June 5, 2020}}</ref> He graduated from [[Harvard Law School]] in 1832.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WkUBAAAAYAAJ&q=editions%3AiCZGq3SGgoQC&pg=PA6|title=Quinquennial Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the Law School of Harvard University, 1817–1889|last=Harvard Law School|website=Google Books|access-date=14 December 2017|year=1890|archive-date=November 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109001237/https://books.google.com/books?id=WkUBAAAAYAAJ&q=editions%3AiCZGq3SGgoQC&pg=PA6|url-status=live}}</ref>

==First private practice==

Admitted to the Massachusetts bar later that year, Curtis began his legal career.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b5osAAAAIAAJ&q=curtis&pg=PA175|title=Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Volume 1|last=Davis|first=William Thomas|website=Google Books|access-date=14 December 2017|year=1895|archive-date=November 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109001238/https://books.google.com/books?id=b5osAAAAIAAJ&q=curtis&pg=PA175|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1834, he moved to Boston and joined the law firm of Charles P. Curtis, where he developed expertise in [[admiralty law]] and also became known for his familiarity with [[patent law]].<ref>''A Memoir of Benjamin Robbins Curtis, LL. D.: Memoir'' (1879), p. 84.</ref>

In 1836, Curtis participated in the Massachusetts "[[freedom suit]]" of ''[[Commonwealth v. Aves]]'' as one of the attorneys who unsuccessfully defended a slaveholding father.<ref>''Commonwealth v. Aves,'' 18 Pick. 193 (Mass. 1836).</ref> When New Orleans resident Mary Slater went to Boston to visit her father, Thomas Aves, she brought with her a young [[slave]] girl about six years of age, named Med. While Slater fell ill in Boston, she asked her father to take care of Med until she (Slater) recovered. The [[Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society]] and others sought a writ of ''[[habeas corpus]]'' against Aves, contending that Med became free by virtue of her mistress's having brought her voluntarily into Massachusetts. Aves responded to the writ, answering that Med was his daughter's slave, and that he was holding Med as his daughter's agent.

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, through its Chief Justice, [[Lemuel Shaw]], ruled that Med was free, and made her a ward of the court. The Massachusetts decision was considered revolutionary at the time. Previous decisions elsewhere had ruled that slaves voluntarily brought into a free state, and who resided there many years, became free. ''Commonwealth v. Aves'' was the first decision to hold that a slave voluntarily brought into a free state became free the moment he or she arrived. The decision in this freedom suit proved especially controversial in slaveholding southern states. As with his fellow Massachusettsan and Harvard graduate [[John Adams#Counsel for the British: Boston Massacre|John Adams]], Curtis's willingness to serve as defense attorney for the Aves family did not necessarily reflect his personal or legal views, as shown by his later dissent in the 1857 [[Dred Scott v. Sandford|Dred Scott decision]].

Curtis became a member of the [[President and Fellows of Harvard College|Harvard Corporation]], one of the two governing boards of Harvard University, in February 1846. In 1849, he was elected to the [[Massachusetts House of Representatives]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/curtis.html|title=The Political Graveyard|access-date=April 16, 2010|archive-date=May 1, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100501024300/http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/curtis.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Appointed chairman of a committee to reform state judicial procedures, they presented the [[Massachusetts Practice Act of 1851]]. "It was considered a model of judicial reform and was approved by the legislature without amendment."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history/supremecourthistory_history_assoc_027curtis.htm|title=Benjamin Robbins Curtis, Timeline of the Court|website=[[Supreme Court Historical Society]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100320130936/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history/supremecourthistory_history_assoc_027curtis.htm|archive-date=March 20, 2010|access-date=June 5, 2020}}</ref>

At the time, Curtis was viewed as a rival to [[Rufus Choate]] and was thought to be the preeminent leader of the [[New England]] bar. Curtis came from a politically connected family, and had studied under [[Joseph Story]] and [[John Hooker Ashmun]]<ref name="NYT">{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1879/10/19/81766662.pdf|title=Judge Benjamin R. Curtis, A Memoir of Benjamin Robbins Curtis, LL.D. With Some of his Professional and Miscellaneous Writings|editor=Benjamin R. Curtis, Jr.|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=October 19, 1879|access-date=June 13, 2018|archive-date=November 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109001238/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1879/10/19/81766662.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> at Harvard Law School. His legal arguments were thought to be well-reasoned and persuasive. Curtis was a [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] and in tune with their politics, and Whigs were in power. As a potential young appointee, he was thought to be the seed of a long and productive judicial career. He was appointed by the president, approved by the Senate, elevated to the Supreme Court bench, but was gone in six years.<ref>{{cite news|title=Benjamin Robins Curtis, Judicial Misfit|last=Leach|first=Richard H.|work=The New England Quarterly|volume=25|number=4|date=December 1952|pages=507–523|jstor=362583}}</ref>

==Supreme Court service==
[[File:BRCurtis.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Benjamin R. Curtis]]
Curtis received a [[recess appointment]] to the United States Supreme Court on September 22, 1851, by [[U.S. President|President]] [[Millard Fillmore]], filling the vacancy caused by the death of [[Levi Woodbury]]. Massachusetts Senator [[Daniel Webster]] persuaded Fillmore to nominate Curtis to the Supreme Court, and was his primary sponsor.<ref name="fox"/> Formally nominated on December 11, 1851, Curtis was confirmed by the [[United States Senate]] on December 20, 1851, and received his commission the same day. He was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1854.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter C|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterC.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=April 7, 2011|archive-date=July 8, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708104323/http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterC.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

He was the first Supreme Court Justice to have earned a law degree from a law school. His predecessors had either "[[read law]]" (a form of [[apprenticeship]] in a practicing firm) or attended a law school without receiving a degree.<ref name="fox"/><ref name="Ariens">{{cite web|url=http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/curtis.htm|title=Benjamin Curtis|website=michaelariens.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724191546/http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/curtis.htm|archive-date=July 24, 2008|access-date=June 5, 2020}}</ref>

His opinion in ''[[Cooley v. Board of Wardens]]'' 53 U.S. 299 (1852)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0053_0299_ZO.html |title=Cornell Law School, full text of ''Cooley v. Board of Wardens'' 53 U.S. 299 (1852). |access-date=June 27, 2017 |archive-date=November 22, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131122201814/http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0053_0299_ZO.html |url-status=live }}</ref> held that the Commerce Power as provided in the [[Commerce Clause]], U.S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 3, extends to laws related to [[pilotage]]. State laws related to commerce powers can be valid so long as Congress is silent on the matter. That resolved a historic controversy over federal [[interstate commerce]] powers. To this day, it is an important precedent in commerce cases.<ref name="fox"/> The issue was whether states can regulate aspects of commerce or whether that power is exclusive to Congress. Curtis concluded that the federal government has exclusive power to regulate commerce only when national uniformity is required. Otherwise, states may regulate commerce.<ref name="Ariens"/>

Curtis was one of the two dissenters in the ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford|Dred Scott]]'' case, in which he disagreed with essentially every holding of the court. He argued against the majority's denial of the bid for [[abolitionism in the United States|emancipation]] by the slave Dred Scott.<ref>See, [[s:Dred Scott v. Sandford/Dissent Curtis]]</ref> Curtis stated that, because there were black citizens in both Southern and Northern states at the time of the drafting of the federal Constitution, black people thus were clearly among the "people of the United States" contemplated thereunder. Curtis also opined that because the majority had found that Scott lacked standing, the Court could not go further and rule on the merits of Scott's case.<ref name="fox"/>

Curtis resigned from the court on September 30, 1857, in part because he was exasperated with the fraught atmosphere in the court engendered by the case.<ref name="Ariens"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/taney.htm|title=Roger B. Taney|website=michaelariens.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516025826/http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/taney.htm|archive-date=May 16, 2008|access-date=May 26, 2012}}</ref> As one source puts it, "a bitter disagreement and coercion by [[Roger Taney]] prompted Benjamin Curtis's departure from the Court in 1857."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Vining Jr.|first1=Richard L.|last2=Smelcer|first2=Susan Navarro|last3=Zorn|first3=Christopher J.|title=Judicial Tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court, 1790–1868: Frustration, Resignation, and Expiration on the Bench|journal=Emory Public Law Research Paper|number=6–10|date=January 26, 2010|pages=9, 10|ssrn=887728}}</ref> However, others view the cause of his resignation as having been both temperamental and financial. He did not like "[[Circuit riding|riding the circuit]]," as Supreme Court Justices were then required to do. He was temperamentally estranged from the court and was not inclined to work with others.  The acrimony over the Dred Scott decision had blossomed into mutual distrust. He did not want to live on $6,500 per year, much less than his earnings in private practice.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Justices of the Supreme Court, 1789–1969: Their Lives and Major Opinions|editor1-last=Friedman|editor1-first=Leon|editor2-last=Israel|editor2-first=Fred L.|volume=II|date=1969|pages=904–05}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=The Business of the Federal Courts and the Salaries of the Judges|last=Dickerman|first=Albert|journal=American Law Review|volume=24|issue=1|date=January–February 1890|page=86}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fjc.gov/public/pdf.nsf/lookup/judgeres.pdf/$File/judgeres.pdf|title=Why Judges Resign: Influences on Federal Judicial Service, 1789 to 1992|last1=Van Tassel|first1=Emily Field|last2=Wirtz|first2=Beverly Hudson|last3=Wonders|first3=Peter|publisher=National Commission on Judicial Discipline and Removal, [[Federal Judicial Center]]|pages=13, 66, 123, 130|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601190210/http://www.fjc.gov/public/pdf.nsf/lookup/judgeres.pdf/$file/judgeres.pdf|archive-date=June 1, 2010|access-date=June 5, 2020}}</ref>

==Return to private practice==
Upon his resignation, Curtis returned to his Boston law practice, becoming a "leading lawyer" in the nation. During the ensuing decade and a half, he argued several cases before the Supreme Court.<ref name="NYT"/> Although Curtis initially supported [[Abraham Lincoln]] as president, by 1863 he was criticizing Lincoln’s "utter incompetence" and publicly argued that the [[Emancipation Proclamation]] was unconstitutional.<ref>[[Mark E. Neely Jr.|Neely Jr., Mark E.]], ''Lincoln and the Triumph of the Nation: Constitutional Conflict in the American Civil War''. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011, pp. 133-135.</ref> This put Curtis out of the running when Lincoln had to choose a successor to Chief Justice [[Roger Taney]], who died in October 1864. In the presidential campaign of that year, Curtis supported Democrat [[George B. McClellan]] against Lincoln.<ref>[[Frank J. Williams|Williams, Frank J.]] and Bader, William D., [https://docs.rwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1488&context=rwu_LR Benjamin R. Curtis: Maverick Lawyer and Independent Jurist] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210913102926/https://docs.rwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1488&context=rwu_LR |date=September 13, 2021 }}, ''Roger Williams University Law Review'', Vol. 17, Issue 2, Article 2, p. 387 (Spring 2012).</ref>

[[File:Benjamin R. Curtis, Esq., of Counsel for the President, Reading the Answer to the Articles of Impeachment, on Monday, March 23d, 1868 (1).jpg|thumb|Illustration of Senate chamber as Curtis, acting as counsel to President [[Andrew Johnson]], talks on March 23, 1868, during the [[Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson|impeachment trial of Johnson]]]]

In 1868, Curtis acted as defense counsel for President [[Andrew Johnson]] during [[Impeachment of Andrew Johnson|Johnson's impeachment trial]]. He read the answer to the [[Article of impeachment|articles]] of [[Federal impeachment in the United States|impeachment]], which was "largely his work". His [[opening statement]] lasted two days, and was commended for legal prescience and clarity.<ref name="NYT"/><ref name="Wilson">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Wilson|first=James Grant|title=Benjamin Robbins Curtis|encyclopedia=Appletons Encyclopedia}}</ref> He successfully persuaded the [[United States Senate|Senate]] that an impeachment was a judicial act, not a political act, so that it required a full hearing of evidence. This precedent "influenced every subsequent impeachment".<ref name="fox"/><ref name="Ariens"/>

After the impeachment trial, Curtis declined President Andrew Johnson's offer of the position of [[U.S. Attorney General]].<ref name="NYT"/> A highly recommended candidate for the Chief Justice position upon the death of [[Salmon P. Chase]] in 1873, Curtis was passed over by President [[Ulysses S. Grant]].<ref name="NYT"/> He was the unsuccessful [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] candidate for U.S. senator from Massachusetts in 1874.<ref name="Wilson"/> From his judicial retirement in 1857 to his death in 1874, his aggregate professional income was about $650,000.<ref name="NYT"/>
[[File:Justice Curtis.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Curtis's gravesite]]

==Personal life==
Curtis had 12 children and was married three times.<ref name="fox">{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/robes_curtis.html|last=Fox|first=John|title=The First Hundred Years: Biographies of the Robes, Benjamin Robinson Curtis|publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service]]|access-date=May 13, 2012|archive-date=November 7, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107195422/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/robes_curtis.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Death and legacy==
Curtis died in [[Newport, Rhode Island]], on September 15, 1874. He is buried at [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]], 580 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html|title=Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices|last=Christensen|first=George A.|website=[[Supreme Court Historical Society]] 1983 Yearbook|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050903032026/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html|archive-date=September 3, 2005|access-date=November 24, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited|last=Christensen|first=George A.|journal=Journal of Supreme Court History|volume=33|issue=1|pages=17–41|date=February 19, 2008|publisher=[[University of Alabama]]|doi=10.1111/j.1540-5818.2008.00177.x|s2cid=145227968 }}</ref> On October 23, 1874, Attorney General [[George Henry Williams]] presented in the Supreme Court the resolutions submitted by the bar on Curtis's death and shared observations on Judge Curtis's defense of President [[Andrew Johnson]] in the articles of impeachment against him.<ref>{{cite book|title=Occasional Addresses|last=Williams|first=George H.|year=1895|location=Portland, Oregon|publisher=F.W. Baltes and Company|pages=120–124}}</ref>

Curtis's daughter, Annie Wroe Scollay Curtis, married (on December 9, 1880) future [[Columbia University]] President and [[New York Mayor]] [[Seth Low]].<ref>"Seth Low" by Gerald Kurland, New York, Twayne Publishers, 1971</ref> They had no children.

==Published works==
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=dBc8AAAAIAAJ&q=Benjamin+Curtis+Reports+of+Cases+in+the+Circuit+Courts+of+the+United+States ''Reports of Cases in the Circuit Courts of the United States''] (2 vols., Boston, 1854)
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=CR08AAAAIAAJ&q=Decisions+of+the+Supreme+Court+of+the+United+States ''Judge Curtis's Edition of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States''], with notes and a digest (22 vols., Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1855).
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=VWvkAAAAMAAJ&q=Curtis+Digest+of+the+Decisions+of+the+Supreme+Court+of+the+United+States+from+the+origin+of+the+court+to+1854 ''Digest of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States from the origin of the court to 1854'' Little Brown & Co., (1864).]
* [https://archive.org/details/amemoirbenjamin00curtgoog <!-- quote=Curtis Memoir and Writings. --> ''Memoir and Writings''] (2 vols., Boston, 1880), the first volume including a memoir by Curtis's brother, [[George Ticknor Curtis]], and the second "Miscellaneous Writings," edited by the former Justice's son, Benjamin R. Curtis, Jr.<ref name="NYT"/><ref name="Wilson"/>

==See also==
{{colbegin}}
* [[Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[Dual federalism]]
* [[List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office]]
* [[Origins of the American Civil War]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Taney Court|United States Supreme Court cases during the Taney Court]]
{{colend}}

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
* {{FJC Bio|547|nid=1379691|name=Benjamin Robbins Curtis<!--(1809–1874)-->}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|2}}
* {{cite book|last=Abraham|first=Henry J.|title=Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court|url=https://archive.org/details/justicespresiden0000abra|url-access=registration|edition=3rd|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1992|location=New York|isbn=978-0195065572}}
* {{cite book|last=Cushman|first=Clare|title=The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995|edition=2nd|publisher=(Supreme Court Historical Society, [[Congressional Quarterly]] Books)|year=2001|isbn=978-1568021263}}
* Flanders, Henry. [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_eEQEAAAAYAAJ <!-- quote=Flanders, Henry. The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court. --> ''The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court'']. Philadelphia: [[J. B. Lippincott & Co.]], 1874 at [[Google Books]].
* {{cite book|last=Frank|first=John P.|editor-last=Friedman|editor-first=Leon|editor2-last=Israel|editor2-first=Fred L.|title=The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions|publisher=[[Chelsea House]] Publishers|year=1995|isbn=978-0791013779|url=https://archive.org/details/justicesofunited0000unse}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Hall|editor-first=Kermit L.|title=The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1992|location=New York|isbn=978-0195058352|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hall}}
* Huebner, Timothy S.; Renstrom, Peter; coeditor. (2003) ''The Taney Court, Justice Rulings and Legacy''. City: ABC-Clio Inc. {{ISBN|978-1576073681}}.
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/362583 Leach, Richard H. "Benjamin Robins Curtis, Judicial Misfit". ''The New England Quarterly'', Vol. 25, No. 4 (Dec., 1952), pp. 507–523 (article consists of 17 pages) Published by: The New England Quarterly, Inc.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819160452/http://www.jstor.org/stable/362583 |date=August 19, 2016 }}
* Leach, Richard H. ''Benjamin R. Curtis: Case Study of a Supreme Court Justice'' (Ph.D. diss., [[Princeton University]], 1951).
* {{cite book|title=Without Fear or Favor: A Biography of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney|last=Lewis|first=Walker|year=1965|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]|location=Boston}}
* {{cite book|last1=Martin|first1=Fenton S.|last2=Goehlert|first2=Robert U.|title=The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography|publisher=Congressional Quarterly Books|year=1990|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=978-0871875549|url=https://archive.org/details/ussupremecourtbi0000mart}}
* Simon, James F. (2006) ''Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President's War Powers'' (Paperback) New York: [[Simon & Schuster]], 336 pages. {{ISBN|978-0743298469}}.
* {{cite book|last=Urofsky|first=Melvin I.|title=The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary|publisher=[[Garland Publishing]]|year=1994|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/supremecourtjust00melv/page/590 590]|isbn=978-0815311768|url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourtjust00melv/page/590}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
* [https://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/robes_curtis.html Fox, John, '''The First Hundred Years, Biographies of the Robes, Benjamin Robinson Curtis.''] [[Public Broadcasting Service]].
* [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1879/10/19/81766662.pdf New Publications, ''Judge Benjamin R. Curtis, A Memoir of Benjamin Robbins Curtis, LL.D. With Some of his Professional and Miscellaneous Writings, Edited by his son, Benjamin R. Curtis'', (October 19, 1879).] [[The New York Times]].

{{s-start}}
{{s-legal}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Levi Woodbury]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]]|years=1851–1857}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Nathan Clifford]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{SCOTUS Justices}}
{{Taney Court}}
{{Impeachment and impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis, Benjamin Robbins}}
[[Category:1809 births]]
[[Category:1874 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American Episcopalians]]
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[[Category:Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Harvard Law School alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the defense counsel for the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson]]
[[Category:Freedom suits in the United States]]
[[Category:Massachusetts lawyers]]
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[[Category:People from Watertown, Massachusetts]]
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